Tourism on the track

It is said that the Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have garnered the momentum that it did if it hadn’t been for the railways. The world has come a long way since James Watt invented the first steam engine in 1769. The competition has stiffened with the advent of motorways and cars, air transport and even shipping. But the railways have remained resilient and indomitable through it all. And in India it is almost the lifeline on which the country survives. Apart from how it impacts India’s economy, Indian Railways has a major role to play in the travel and tourism space.

Trains in India are by far the most affordable mode of transport. Key destinations and tourist circuits can be accessed only by train, rendering railways a necessity for most inbound as well as domestic travellers. It is because of Indian Railways accessing destinations like Khajuraho, Hampi, interiors of Uttar Pradesh even north east is possible, courtesy its impressive network-reach and frequency. Recently Pir Panjal railway tunnel, the longest tunnel of India and second largest in Asia on Banihal-Qazigund section of Jammu & Kashmir Railway line has been declared ready. Trial runs of train operations are on which will be opened shortly for regular train operations in about two months time. With the operation of this section Kashmir valley will be linked with the Jammu region by train. “The importance of railways in the country’s tourism is evident from the fact that over 7800 trains carry about 11 million passengers to their destinations every day. The growth of railways has been continuous and sustained making it indispensable to tourism in India,” says Subhash Goyal, chairman, STIC Travel Group and president IATO. “Overnight journeys help people reach from one place to another while saving on a night’s accommodation and journeys of less than four hours are better accomplished by train than through flights,” adds Prem Subramaniam, partner, Prem Subramaniam Associates.

Surinder Singh Sodhi

It needs no reiteration as to how important railways are to India, her people and her economy, but there is always a question as to whether there is scope for more. And indeed there is. Subramaniam explains this succinctly, while flights on trunk routes have increased in frequency, the corresponding increase in frequency of trains has not happened. Ticket bookings have become difficult; three months also do not seem enough. “Current road blocks such as infrastructural development coupled with challenges due to hygiene and sanitation, quality of food and poor service delivery are the key barriers to growth. Additionally, safety and security is a significant concern highlighted by inbound customers,” says Surinder Singh Sodhi, senior vice president and head, leisure travel – inbound, Thomas Cook (India). Indian Railways has been progressive in many ways; Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) still has room for improvement with enhancements in seat or berth selection and being able to book return or multiple sector journeys more seamlessly. Reservations can easily assimilate reservation of meals with better choices; toilets too need better maintenance with more frequent cleaning services based on usage; chartering trains or sections of carriages can be made easier. While there have been many plans to use railway land for offering budget accommodation the progress leaves much to be desired for; only success here has been the Rail Yatri Niwas at the New Delhi railway station which was handed over to Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) which promotes Ginger hotel. Effective management and strict implementation of policies can work wonders to the existing status of Indian Railways as a tourism product.

Meaningful measures

Unfortunately there has been an excessive focus on luxury trains and not enough is done to improve services with a focus on the domestic market. While there are initiatives to change the current course of action, development is a continuous process that demands both intent and support. Steps are being taken, the 2013-14 railway budget has given out clear mandates in the direction of improvement of services of the railways. For safety related works allocations have been made by about 13 per cent as compared to last year. Vinay Mittal, chairman, Railway Board in a recent conference said that Indian Railways has formulated an ambitious 12th Five Year Plan for its expansion and growth. He said that the plan size would be to the tune of Rs 5.19 lakh crore. The funding pattern would be: Government budgetary support Rs 1.9 lakh crore, internal resource generation – Rs 1.05 lakh crore, market borrowings – v 1.2 lakh crore and PPP – Rs one lakh crore. He said that the target is to create fund balance of Rs 30,000 crore in the terminal year of the 12th Plan. Indian Railways generated a revenue of Rs 111984.89 crore from April 2012 to February 2013 registering an increase of 20.40 per cent. The total passenger revenue was Rs 28915.09 crore registering an increase of 11.82 per cent. The total approximate numbers of passengers booked were 7803.42 million compared to 7586.63 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 2.86 per cent.

Indian Railways monitor the punctuality of trains using Integrated Coaching Management System (ICMS) at all the three levels viz Divisional level, Zonal Head Quarters level and Railway Board level. In an effort to reach out to women travellers and senior citizens a combined quota of two lower berths per coach has been earmarked in Sleeper, AC-3 tier and AC-2 tier classes. A reservation quota of two sleeper class berths has been earmarked in all trains running on non-suburban sections for differently abled persons on a journey on handicapped concessional ticket. Indian Railways has also attached specially designed coaches known as SLRD coaches with wider entrance doors to allow a wheel chair to enter, wider aisles and modified toilet with four berths, in almost all Mail/Express trains except Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi Express Trains and Duronto Express Trains. Comprehensive instructions already exist for accessibility for physically challenged passengers at railway stations. Short term facilities like standard ramp for barrier free entry, earmarking at least two parking lots, non-slippery walk-way from parking lot to building, signages of appropriate visibility, at least one drinking water tap suitable for use by differently abled persons, at least one toilet on the ground floor and ‘May I help you’ Booth, have been planned at all ‘AI’, ‘A’ and ‘B’ category stations (581 stations). These facilities have already been provided at 562 stations. In addition, escalators and lifts been have been provided at 44 stations. Further, 354 escalators are planned for ongoing sanctioned works.

New Delhi railway station is the first to have an executive lounge. Setting up of more such lounges at Bilaspur, Visakhapatnam, Patna, Nagpur, Agra, Jaipur and Bengaluru was announced in the railway budget this year. Managed and run by IRCTC these lounges will have facilities such as WI-FI, buffet services, wash and change, concierge services for pre-departure and post-arrival assistance to passengers as per demand.

Focus tourism

Subhash Goyal

As Goyal puts it, “Railways are indeed the backbone of tourism in India. In terms of cost of travel, Indian Railways stay way ahead of other means of transport. Further, luxury trains like Palace-on-Wheels, Deccan Odyssey, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Maharajas’ Express and The Golden Chariot have contributed to niche tourism in India. Also with its fleet of express and superfast trains, the Railways have added speed and efficiency to lure the tourist.” Indian Railways with different state tourism boards have taken on the mantle of running luxury trains across India and that too successfully. To take the lead was the Palace on Wheels – the coaches of the train belonged to the rulers of princely states of Rajputana, Gujarat, the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Viceroy of British India. After independence, these coaches were parked and remained so till in 1981-82. Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) and Indian Railways launched Palace on Wheels. State government and the Railways brought infrastructural changes in the coaches while maintaining the aesthetics of the interiors. These coaches were later replaced by air-conditioned broad gauge new train. Using this as a prototype Maharashtra and Karnataka also have their versions, Deccan Odyssey and The Golden Chariot, respectively. The popularity and advance booking on the Palace on Wheels was such that RTDC and Indian Railways had to introduce Royal Rajasthan on Wheels.

Most of Indian luxury trains are listed in the most popular luxury trains lists, this is just a great example of what forethought and future planning can achieve for Indian tourism. These trains now also offer business requirements like board rooms and conferencing systems. The aim now for these trains should be to reach out to different target audiences and not just the baby boomers. There were talks with RailEurope and IRCTC to bring these trains under RailEurope’s network to reach out to wider audiences. Florence Pasquier, commercial director, Rail Europe says that there is a huge demand for Indian luxury trains in the global travel and tourism market, and Rail Europe would be very keen to have them on their distribution list. The demand comes from countries like Japan, Australia, Korea and South American nations.

Prem Subramaniam

Prime minister, Manmohan Singh at the foundation laying of the Kochi metro line informed that the government will support preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPR) for Metro rail in all 19 cities with a population of over two million. He added that DPRs had already been prepared for 12 cities and Metro rail projects were being implemented in seven cities covering a total network of length 476 km at a cost of over Rs 1.15 lakh crore. Most of India’s metropolitan are home to rich culture and history, a fast and efficient mode of transport can ease accessibility for tourists. Case in point being Kolkata and Delhi. The Delhi Metro carries about 22 lakh people daily. Subramaniam adds, “Delhi Metro services have certainly encouraged alternative tourism experiences for locals themselves. People from South Delhi have begun to frequent Chandni Chowk at night and of course they would take visitors and guests too. The use of public transport is key to growth with sustainability and should be encouraged. This can be done by better inter modal transport terminuses, link services to places of tourist interest from stations, information kiosks and maps at stations and an increased investment in mobile applications to allow greater independent travel.”

To connect better with the tourists IRCTC started the travel booking website railtourismindia.com. The website offers tour packages, hotel and car booking, train tickets. Last year they also started flight bookings as well; IRCTC has developed in house air ticketing module for booking tickets for domestic and international airlines through website irctc.co.in and railtourismindia.com. Some of the special train booking the website offers include – Bharat Darshan, Kalka-Shimla Special Train, Mahaparinirvan Express, Steam Express and Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These trains and tours have been designed so as to allow easy access to various tourist destinations together with sight seeing and accommodation making them an all inclusive tour. Bharat Darshan for instance is designed for the budget traveller costing ` 500 per day per passenger includes, rail travel, road transfers, meals, accommodation and sight seeing. Similarly, Mahaparinirvan Express, which has resulted in opening up India’s Buddhist sights of BodhGaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Varanasi, Sarnath, Kushinagar, Lumbini, Sravasti and Agra, is also an all inclusive package. IRCTC in association with the Odisha government will be starting an Odisha Buddhist circuit train. Sri Lankan tourists also feature in IRCTC’s plans with a 22 day Buddhist special train being planned for them, which they can board from Chennai after reaching the city by air from Colombo.

Global connections

This circuit has been identified as a priority circuit, which is evident from the fact that India had signed a MoU on tourism with ASEAN in early 2012, with a work plan for the development of ASEAN-India cooperation in Buddhist pilgrimage tourism. Apart from Buddhism, the potential to draw in tourists from neighboring nations if there is a railway connect, increases manifold. In 2012, Indian Railways proposed to connect Agartala in Tripura with Akhaura in Bangladesh. To be named Maitree Express, completion of this rail link means improvement in bilateral ties as well as a boost in establishing connectivity with inaccessible areas in northeast. Earlier this year an inter-governmental railway meeting between India and Bangladesh was held to see how this link can be expedited. In 2011, two projects were taken up to provide connectivity to Nepal — Jogbani-Biratnagar new line and Jaynagar-Bijalpura-Bardibas line. The biggest success perhaps is the running of the Samjhauta Express running via Attari – Wagah border in Punjab and Thar Express running via Munabao – Khokrapar border in Rajasthan, between India and Pakistan.

In 2007, India signed the inter-governmental agreement to connect 28 nations via the trans-Asian railway (TAR). The TAR rail link will connect Thailand and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan with Turkey through Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran with Sri Lanka; a total distance of 22,600 km. According to the inter-governmental agreement the route will enter India from Tamu in Myanmar and Jiribam in Manipur. The original aim of TAR was to improve trade relations between the landlocked nations, but the impact on tourism is also undeniable. India will have the potential to lure her neighbours with whom she shares a cultural affinity. But the harsh reality is that these plans will take a long time to become operational.

There is a lot to learn from China, according to Robert Broadfoot, MD, Political & Economic Risk Consultancy, China has been working on restructuring the entire transportation scenario, which in the end will impact entire Asia. The nation is aggressively developing roadways and railways, building transcontinental links. China spends US$ 105 billion on railway investment each year compared to India’s US$ 9.1 billion. And China aims to double its current capacity of railway network by 2015 to 16,000 km. CNR Corporation and China CSR have geared up to expand their capacity as well allowing them to take on railway network building projects in any other country. “India and China have enough domestic tourism and we need not worry too much about improvement of rail services in China. I think if we focused on our domestic tourism, PIOs, NRIs and specific segments of visitors we can have increased revenues and longer staying visitors as well repeat traffic,” counters Subramaniam.

Private sector boost

Indian Railways is a matter of pride for most Indians, so how can the private sector help? While successes have been achieved in the bidding out of food courts, kiosks, catering services this is still too little in relation to the opportunities. “Private sector has come forth by extending its services like they have joined hands with the Indian railways to run Deccan Odyssey (West India), Golden Chariot (South India) and many other tourist trains thus revamping the overall travel experience. Private tour operators are also promoting rail packages in global markets thereby increasing the footfall and presence of the railways,” says Goyal. Accommodation is another area where association with the private sector will be beneficial. “Joint partnerships with key tour operators for visibility and awareness- via joint marketing promotions would be invaluable to ensuring targeting consumers. Key USPs, enticing images, new circuits need to be highlighted. Luxury opportunities should be highlighted to capture India’s growing HNI-UHNI segments,” adds Sodhi.

While the private sector needs motivation to take up the cause of railways, it is also a question as to when will the railways think of themselves as having the potential to be a profitable organisation. While they have recorded profits for last year it has to be a continuous effort. With the Air India episode behind India, the question again raised here is will privatising Indian Railways work? As Subramaniam elucidates there are many layers in the context. Some elements such as the ownership and management of tracks and stations need to remain vested with the government. But at the same time many services could be taken up by private enterprise using the current employees of Indian railways and associated unions. “Luggage handling, pre-booking bulk luggage, storage, waiting room facilities could be looked at immediate opportunities. Using railway land for accommodation, retail shops, food courts, link transport services would also appear to be relatively easy,” he says. Critical services like medical trains can be run in conjunction with hospitals and insurance companies. Providing temporary accommodation at sites where people gather in large numbers during special events, running of package tours could easily be done better with a partnership model.

Plans are aplenty, execution requires long term commitment and a futurevision, a robust mechanism of laying down processes, checks and balances, and assigning responsibilities and accountability.